We were in Hunstville for the Ruby Hoedown this past weekend, and let me just say that Jeremy McAnally knows how to put on a hoedown. All you people who didn’t come because of the location or the size or the timing or any other reason, you screwed up.

With two EVDO cards and a nice AP, Confreaks managed to give one of the best conference networks I’ve ever experienced. Granted, I don’t have a lot of conference experience, but I know enough to say Confreaks » O’Reilly. I think in general this was the best conference experience I’ve had, owing in large part to the regional aspects: smaller, more focused (as in there was only one track), less focused (schedule not completely nailed down, good hallway track action).

Obie catches us in a moment, probably thinking of ways to screw with Rein during his talk

Rick, being on the schedule, gave his talk on going through a major refactoring and adding tests to old code, focusing on the experience of turning flog into flame. I was inspired to give a lightning talk on truthy. Kevin managed to squeeze one day of the Hoedown in between other blocks on his busy schedule — legitimizing us with the presence of an iPhone — so this wasn’t the conference to get “the full OG monty”, as it were. Maybe we’ll have to break open the seal on that at something even more local than a regional conference. NashDL OGConf, anyone?

Other highlights:

Hashrocket quoting me in their 3-2-1 ad on the back of the schedule

Obie including our logo among many others, showing the consultancy marketplace in his “Hustle” presentation

I’ll see your two cents and raise you an “everybody’s got one”... My highlights also included bryanl’s (http://smartic.us/) “test all the fucking time” talk; talking hippo craziness with giles, defunkt, ali & imagetic; and just the general “hallway track” in general.